High pressure structural behavior and synthesis of Zr2SC

A high pressure study of Zr2SC using synchrotron x-ray diffraction and a Mao-Bell type diamond anvil cell has been performed up to a pressure of 46 GPa at room temperature. No phase transformation has been observed up to this pressure. It is found that the compression along the two axes is almost identical up to 15 GPa, thereafter the c-axis shows a slightly higher compressibility. The third order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state was used to fit the experimental pressure-volume data, from which the isothermal bulk modulus was obtained as KT = 186(4) GPa with a pressure derivative K'T = 4.0. The sample was synthesized using the piston cylinder technique and was found to be predominantly single phase after it was characterized by scanning electron microscopy equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer and by synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The lattice parameters calculated from the x-ray diffraction were a0 = 3.406(2) and c0 = 12.138(4).